Partisans of the Nude: An Arab Art Genre in an Era of Contest, 1920-1960

Kirsten L. Scheid

ISBN 10: 1884919375 / ISBN 13: 9781884919374

Published by University of Washington Press, 2024

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # B9781884919374

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Partisans of the Nude: An Arab Art Genre in an Era of Contest, 1920-1960
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1884919375
• ISBN 13: 9781884919374
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 526 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Partisans of the Nude is a survey of genre art of the nude made by artists in areas that were formerly Ottoman but not yet Arab. Though spoken of as taboo and practically absent from Arab art production, the nude genre was important for early twentieth-century artists who sought to define their societies as post-Ottoman and cosmopolitan. Although recognized as foundational to Western art since Ancient Greece, the role the nude played in carving out an Arab art has been ignored by both nationalist histories and Orientalist narratives. By contrast, this book shows that art movements outside the West created their own, connected and commandeering modernity through the genre. It recontextualizes “postwar” and “Arab Spring” art by rooting it in the decolonizing and civic reinvention efforts of artists and activists who fiercely upheld aesthetic development and battled for new forms of political being.

About the Author

Betti-Sue Hertz became Director and Chief Curator at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery in 2019. Her curatorial and scholarly work focuses on the intersection of critical visual culture, transnational exchange, and socially relevant issues. Hertz was Director, Longwood Arts Project, Bronx (1992–98); Curator of Contemporary Art, San Diego Museum of Art (2000–2008); Director of Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2008–15); and Public Arts Consultant, TLS Landscape Architecture (2015–20). Hertz has organized more than sixty exhibitions during her career. She was a member of Stanford Art Institute’s Creative Cities Working Group (2016–19) and a founding member of RepoHistory (1989–2000). Hertz received a B.A. from Goddard College, an M.F.A. from Hunter College, and a Ph.D. in Art History from the City University of New York. She has taught social art history and theory at Stanford University, San Francisco Art Institute, and University of California, Berkeley.